Why didn’t they just do it right the 1st time?

now i’ll want one! no!

now, why would anyone buy the current model now after hearing this?

It will be 1986 all over again.

If they have any brains at all, they will just bring the European Ford Mondeo to the U.S., exactly the way it is. Its a great car being denied to the U.S. consumer. And don’t water it down to what bean counters think are American tastes – give us the full European dose!

Why don’t they just scrap the Taurus and focus on making the Fusion really, really good so it can be on par with the Accord? Why do they need two sedans? Honda is doing more than fine with the Accord and even though Toyota has the Avalon, no one really buys it anymore, so what’s the point? If the Crown Vic is on its way out than maybe, but otherwise why bother? No one would miss it anyway.

why? who need it

Off topic: I guess now we know what LP640 is doing with his other hand.

On topic: It will be interesting to see what ford attempts to do with this vehicle. the original Taurus was iconic, and started a trend. Unfortunately, at least from a design standpoint for their North American products, Ford seems to have lost their way.

Yeah Pauly, The domestics have soo many cars in their lineup overlapping and competing with eachother Especially GM and Ford it’s unreal. While Ford does need an Accord fighter, which I think the Fusion is doing a good job doing and I think both are good cars, I’m not going to ever be buying a car in this segment so it doesn’t really interest me personally. However as good as the Accord is, when I look at Honda’s lineup and their limited availability to the U.S customer I really don’t see anything that would interest me with the exception of the S2000, Accord Coupe (which I really like) and the Civic Si, but I can think of more preferable and more affordable alternatives. This is also why we probably or at least I won’t in my lifetime see Honda as the #1 automaker. You do need somewhat of a variety to offer the general public if you want to push a high sales #. But yeah when you have Ford that has even within their own Brand of four door sedans, the Ford Fusion, Ford Taurus, and Ford Crown Victoria I say kill the crown vic, the only reason why I think they still have it is for police cruisers, which GM and Dodge are gunning for the spot to replace it with, I don’t know what Ford will do with the Taurus.

For what this car is ment for, family. It isn’t a bad car by any means. They complained about the 500’s sales as well. What did they fail to do with both of these cars? Advertise them?

LP640 are you applying for the job? You seem to know a great deal about gay culture.

Off topic, but an interesting article:

http://www.cbc.ca/consumer/story/2008/01/22/mcguinty-autos.html

Sorry LP640 but Merc doesn’t make a pick-up, however I’m sure you can find a Ute down under to hop into and cross your ankles behind your head.

Let’s hope they at least get rid of that 3-bar gillette-shaver grille! If that’s “Bold American”, then I am ashamed to be an American.

Hahahahah… Look.. LP640 can’t take it…. hahahaha

All the Taurus really needs to be successful is a powerplant that’ll get it to 60 in 6 seconds. When everyone else is selling fast family four doors and your only offerings are the slowest across the board, why not buy the competitors.

By “the one we should have made originally” do they mean build the 427, the Interceptor, or mobilize the Falcon and thereby retire the panther cars and make the Taurus into something more useful overall?

Also SS4LIFE, The Fusion if FORD’s accord fighter. Odd as it seems, but true. But you have no interest in that segment, and frankly neither do I.

The product overlapping doesn’t occur quite where most people think it does. For FORD, at least amongst the cars, it is in the large and full-sized market. The Taurus get bumped into the large car market when that nameplate was hastily added to the Five-Hundred. The Fusion, which was the replacement for the Taurus in the mid-sized market has no overlap to content with in the same line-up. The Five-Hundred/Taurus and the Crown Victoria overlap in the general marketplace but are actually worlds apart.

As many will agree, the Crown Vic is mainly a fleet vehicle, for Police, Taxi, and Rental fleets. But in the general market place it has to contend with the Taurus and it’s more up-to-date design, features, and technology. Yet many do buy Crown Vics for various reasons, though the majority of them are seniors.. and usually the car is a Grand Marquis or a Town Car.

Frankly If FORD was truly so worried about the large car market they would have shipped ht FALCON sooner, and/or made the 427 or Interceptor (a “four-door Mustang” at least) by now.

I would think FORD is going to do something superficially cool but substantively lame.

Even J Mays admitted he was way off target on the original design of the 500. He vowed never make that mistake again. We’ll see.

I guess you can question J Mays styling sense. There was that period where he did never ending tool sheds with wheels. Remember the 24/7?

What are they going do to it? The interior isn’t bad…at least not as bad as the Chrysler cars. The exterior is admittedly bland, but an exterior overhaul would be very costly to do and would be difficult to pull off in a short time.

the platform is great the styling is what is the problem. just make it gourgous and people will buy it make it dangerous looking all the sedans out their are boring iexcept the malibu t wouldn’t be hard to make something that stands out take the look of the mondeo and slightly american-ize it and bingo

hmm since most people say drop the Taurus, Ford actually needs this car, like the focus, and the new up coming verve/Fiesta

more or less these models compete against one another

Taurus – Avalon, Impala, Maxima
Fusion – Malibu, Accord, Camry, Altima
Focus – Caliber, Civic, Corolla, Cobalt, Sentra, Astra,
Fiesta/Verve – Fit, Yaris, Aveo, Versa

if anything GM has too many brands compeating in the size segment with all their devisions.

As odd as it may sound, it makes total sense to introduce a heavily redesigned 2010 Taurus next year. We’ve already seen a preview of the redesigned 2010 Taurus X.. it’s called the Explorer American concept!

The Fusion now plays in the same sandbox as the Taurus used to. Therefore, do what you want to the car but lose the name.

I’m pretty sure that the new Taurus will fill in Crown Vic’s shoes. Hopefully offering a Volvo’s 4.4L V8 engine as an option!!

Can’t wait to see what it will look like……

^gbb, yes, my mom had a 2005 Five Hundred. It was extremely nice. People are very stupid to jump into conclusions and brand the 500 as crappy and etc where they havent sat in nor driven one. Just plain stupid people out there!

I’ve rented the Five Hundred and wasn’t upset by it, though I’d never buy one. But if fuel price hikes are permanent maybe Ford ought to just slide its lineup focus one notch closer to “small” … add the Fiesta at the bottom end and lop off the Taurus at the top end. Maybe yesterday’s mid-size is tomorrow’s full-size. Maybe the problem with the current Taurus is it’s the wrong car in the wrong economy with the wrong gasoline price.

I will never in 100 years understand why Ford thought it was smart to replace one well-known bread-and-butter sedan with two unknown alternatives. Morons.

The thing that pisses me off the most about Ford is they name everything starting with the letter “e” and name their mercury cars with words that start with the letter “m”. And that girl does ALL the effin commercials for mercury. Ford YOU ARE BORING. Change your effin logo too…it’s CORNY…It stands for unreliable trash! Here’s advice for Ford, build quality products..make $800-$1000 per car and all it a day. Stop cutting every corner and putting crap on the market. For example, assuming Ford and Honda were the only two car manuf on the planet. Here’s the scenario that plays out in the consumer’s mind: Should I buy a Ford for $15K or a Toyota that’s actually built “Ford Tough” for $18K? Ford, why don’t you put yourselves in the consumer’s shoes? The choice is easy, I’d even pay up to $8K more for quality, reliability and resale! Why do people buy $200 jeans when they can buy $20 jeans? Cause the $200 jeans will look/ & feel good FOREVER.

I wouldn’t bemoan the Five-Hundred as a nameplate. Just the marketing that brought it about. The “first letter” scheme was a shotty idea at best.

The Five-hundred was a good name but attached to a less that expected car. From years before its launch, FORD gave us one hot, fully producible, Large sedan concept after another. We had developed the idea and FORD even let out the rumor that the new car would replace the Taurus and the Crown Vic.

Instead, FORD killed the Taurus and kept the Crown Vic while giving us not a 300/Charger rival but a car that was strangely again not what anyone expected and not too many really wanted. I think we all wanted a 427 or an Interceptor. Like I keep saying, a “four-door Mustang” would have been the best idea in 25 years from FORD.

While not what I think most people wanted, FORDs are famously durable, reliable, and easy to fix in most cases, The Five-Hundred hit most of us like a case of false advertising. It is a good car. As the MKS, it’ll be even better. The Five-Hundred/Taurus might have gone over as great if FORD hadn’t pulled the stunt it did.

S-60-driver, I honestly hope your mother continues to enjoy her Five-Hundred and that the upgrade or replacement will be better than still. My mother owns a LINCOLN LS V8 and it has been almost unstoppable. I just wish the car replacing it was entirely as good or better.

good job ford…don’t let this bad design escalate like you have in the past.

Okay, so Mullaly knows it needs a quick revamp.

Expect 3 additional cupholders, newer softer naugahide in the base model, some fender vents to compete with the Buick Lucerne, and a lower door-ding strip down the side to bring out the dynamic sporting characteristics of the “all new for 09″ Ford Bore-us.

LP640 is mourning the death of Heath Ledger, aka Ennis the Penis from Brokeback Mountain

Blakkarr…. my mom “had” a 500. She drives a Fusion. She wanted the new Taurus when the lease was up but she didnt want to drive the large mass of the car anymore. Nothing’s wrong with the 500/Taurus, she said. She’s a petite woman.

DeansterTJ….. LOL, funny!

RicardoHead….. Not all new 2009, I think it’s 2010 model year coming out next year in 2009 as the post title says. And, Im pretty sure that Ford will not mess up in styling this time. Mullany said he wants all cars to match the design gobally. Expect a great state of the art interior design similar to the upcoming Flex.

OK my crystal ball says that the next Taurus will be great, but because no one will buy it will be renamed into FZA (randomly chosen letters as in Cadillac nomenclature) and this vehicle will be declared a glaring success.

Wasn’t the 500 suppposed to replace the Taurus and the Crown Vic? So they styled it right in between those target buyers and didn’t satisfy either. They then decided to keep the Crown Vic around a little longer, and the 500 became redundant. Ford needs to make this new Taurus soemthing as innovative as the Mondeo, or just make a sedan version of the new Explorer to keep in line with the Taurus and Taurus X idea.

I am amazed that Ford is reacting so quickly to this situation. The current Taurus and Sable are not bad cars, but they do suffer from some rather dull styling. I think the platform is more than competent and competitive, but the design does not do much to attract attention or create excitement. I hope Ford fixes this with the 2010 Taurus. The Taurus name became synonymous with innovative styling when the first generation debuted in the mid 80’s. I hope Ford can return this model name to its former glory. I can’t wait to see the result.

I do find it interesting that the Sable is not mentioned in the article. I wonder if Ford will leave the Sable as is and let it ride out Mercury’s remaining time in the market in its current form. If that’s the case, then at least the Sable and Taurus will finally have their own distinct designs.

The next thing I would like to see Ford do is announce that the 2008 Focus will have a shortened lifespan and will be replaced by a new model for 2011 (I would say “or sooner”, but I think that’s asking a lot). If the upcoming production Fiesta/Verve makes it to market without being diluted too much from the Verve concept cars, then the current U.S. Focus is going to look that much more pathetic when compared to its smaller sibling.

Taurus is a tired name. Boring, irrelevant. Time for something new, light, fast, exciting … Taurus, it’s a big fat bull. Does anyone at Ford have any imagination?

MikeFX.. that is exactly what they will do. The Taurus will essentially be an Explorer sedan.. but this time they will differentiate the styling quite a bit, unlike the Five Hundred/Freestyle/Taurus/X. People keep saying this will be just another facelift, but considering the Taurus X is morphing into the completely different Explorer, I expect to see a full redesign on the Taurus. I can only pray they don’t go “retro” back to 1986!

Hey let’s give them props for a different mind set. In the past Ford, GM and Chrysler take for ever to change when something is not wroking. By the way the new Taurus is a great car. Something that many people don’t realize is that the Taurus has changed class. It’s no longer mid size ( Now Fusion) it’s Full size. Mid size is the largest cars market in the US. Toyota Avalons and Chevy Impalas arn’t selling that great either.

Ok,Ok, who the hell said the Taurus X is morphing into the Explorer America????? That is the replacement for the Explorer itself poeple…They even said so in the article. If anything is replacing the TaurusX it’s the Flex, but they still have plans to build both at the same time. As for as a Chrger competitor….what is…the Ford Mustang Alex. The 300 competitor is the Grand Marquis believe it or not.

Off subject: Hey Buenos leave that loser LP640 alone he’s probably the Firebird or Camaro owner I dusted years ago in my Taurus SES, and still has’nt gotten over having his Chevy “Psuedo” Sports car being beat by a sleek Ford Motor Co family sedan!

On subject. The Taurus was the best selling American car for years because it gave the American consumer a futuritically style american automobile, built reasonably well at a great price. That annoyed the hell out of GM owners.(too bad LP640 BooHoo! >:))really feelin sorry for ya. because they kept their braggadosia attitude going that GM is better but was’nt, and in fact they were getting killed in the market by the Ford Taurus.
None of GM’s midsized vehicles combined were no where near FORD Taurus sales figures. Ford was number #1. And Toyota and Honda approached competing against the Ford Taurus likened it to going to WAR! All the While GM kept slinging mud at FORD and coming out with more GM crap!

Unfortunately Ford did and still does not have that same kind of attitude or intensity that Honda or Toyota does. meaning it had and has no professional management and promoting built into their hiring system from within. Companies like Toyota and Honda and most other japanese companies do have professional hiring, promoting, term, and salary caps built in. And most important they are visionaries that build real dreams and not just concepts.

And that’s what “The Brightest and Newest Blood” does for a Great Company. They keep it great by bring and ensuring the best ideas, consistency in its product line and company direction is moving is a profoundedly “Great” direction.

ANd this brings about the Scenario that unfolded. Ford did nothing for it”(The Taurus) for years the car became a door mat of its segment after no redevelpment and then scrapped it.

In steps Alan Mulally brings “Intelligent Thinking” back into Ford’s culture instead of the Ford Family whims or “what the Ford Family thinks” should be produced-which has gotten their great grandfather’s 105 year old company almost bankrupt and their still a long way from being out of the woods. But the point is Mr. Mulally has taken several good steps in righting the company, but the thing is it will be all for naught if the Ford kids keep control and unprofessional management or Ford Family kids get back involved in the decision making process which got them into trouble in the first place Which is tell your designers hey just give me something like last years model! that thinking is dead. Read Lee Iacocca’s Biography to learn the inside of Ford MO Co’s history.

The Taurus name, because it represent something Ford has never had in recent “Ford’ or the American memory before it- except the Model T and that is not only consistency, a Great Car, affordable price, innovation-aerodynamic styling, etc, and the number #1 selling vehicle in America year after year. Which GM fans hated. It was killing them!

And Ford went to sleep and said we don’t have to do a thing. Wrong.

Reason being is this.
You don’t see Honda or Toyota does taking a dump or scrapping the Accord or Camry nameplates do you. When you talk to a Accord owners and their absolutely proud of the fact their Honda Accord resale value is consistently highest in the class, they love telling you their car has over 200,000 miles+ and still running great, its reliabilty, improvements every time the car is made.

Bottom Line: I think Mr. Alan Mulally is doing the right thing by quickly erasing a car that was never the next logical step for the Ford Taurus. I sincerely hope the 2010 Taurus will be something truly special.

And as the Professor told Bill and Ted in Bill and Ted’s excellent adventure. It had better be something very very special. Otherwise Ford could be in deep trouble.

Incidentally since buying my 2001 Ford Taurus Modular V6 DOHC still runs great and feels new with only 114,000 miles on it.
It would further lead me to conclude that it would still be running like New at 250,000 or even 500,000 miles on it as well. Something a GM owner does’nt know a thing about LP640. And ergo Ford engine and transmission quality and manufacture is on par with Honda or Toyota as the recent survey suggests. Ford keep up the work in the quality department.

Do threee things.

1.) Put a Professional mangement hiring system in place
2.) Innovate and turn Ford in a total transportation provide not just cars or trucks. Jets like Honda is a good example
3.)Don’t take crap from GM
4.)Grow the company in other advanced science areas-Robotics, electronics, and beat GM to making cars that drive themselves. That is what is coming next and make no mistake about it! So this way we can go where ever we want and read a book at the same time.

Instead of engaging idiot’s on america’s roads like LP640 and we can then ignor. I think it would save alot of lives, because guys like LP640 would be obsolete and no more road rage.

I see many people did’nt comment on the Ford verve. That seems to be another good thing Ford is doing.
The Explorer American concept is also good

Chrysler and Ford have made Lutz look like a genious. GM is ahead of them on both exterior styling and interiors. While those two companies are going back to the drawing board on upgrading interiors and model updates, GM has made progress and hasn’t had to do any of that. Not that all of GM has done has sold that well (Lacrosse which I hate and G6) but the improvements have been enough to hold their ground against Ford/Chrysler. Now, Ford/Chrysler realize their mistakes (Ford recognized this a while back but Chrysler had those damn German blinds on) and are making the right moves but then have you seen the new Malibu? GM is raising their game and I wonder if Ford/Chrysler can match it. Even with the Fusion which is excellent, Ford released it and then had to add tons of content and options to match competitors later on.

Cookie – I have now seen more new Malibus on the road than I have new Accords. I know the Accord outsells nationwide, but as an indicator things are really looking good for the Malibu and Ford/Chrysler are going to have a tough time providing domestic competition.

Fords are just total junk. The old taurus was unreliable and slow. Except for the yamaha powered sho. I don’t see how the new taurus will be any better. Maybe faster but still unreliable like all fords.

I couldn’t understand why Ford bothered to redo the front and rear ends last year to ‘create ” the NEW Taurus / Sable and then left that bland bland bland side profile. HUGE waste of money. hopefully they can make something nice out its bones.

No my friend Cookie it is GM that is the one that has been behind in interior styling. Not to mention they are the same source of the whining about Jellybean shaped cars when the Taurus beat the hell out of them years ago.

Now instead of offering bricks to the public GM has decided at least from the exterior to continue to copy the only Taurus design theme. (How Original!)
introduced several versions of the Ford Taurus under several different name plates. Let us contemplate a few of them. 1.) Saturn Aura-(should we borrow their slogan and say Saturn Rethink Taurus- I think we shall)
2.) Chevy Impala has been imitating Taurus since it came out and they almost have that down to a science at this point. 3.) G6 4.)Buick Lucerne 5.) Malibu is borrowing alot of cues from Taurus to- but its still crap.

Now as far as interiors goes. GM continues to blow mold its dashboards on cheap polyurethane plastic-you know the stuff milk bottle are made out of! I know this is true, because I have actually handle parts while inside GM parts plants- and said to myself what Crap.
I not only have delivered to GM parts suppliers throughout the midwest but also my friend I have driven GM cars since the early 1980’s and its still the same junk. Father had nothing but GM crap throughout the 1980’s and it was all GM Garbage deserving of a quick trip straight off the truck from the dealer new to the Junk man to be squashed and melted down into something useful. And don’t give melted down metal back to GM they don’t know how to make an Engine.
If it does the GM engine will fall apart as always. Interior were inferior and still are. you have’nt seen interiors at Ford or Toyota or Honda.

And please spare everyone the comparison in auto sales figures of the lowly Chevy Malibu with the Honda Accord.
Their is no way those two cars belong in the same sentence or facsimile thereof.

Your talking about a Japanese high quality car that is turn out at the rate of 400,000 to a half a million units per year VS a substandard Amero-Crap that barely eeks out to a six figure range. So please no more propaganda about the Malibu’s Pseudo greatness except in your own mind. or Cracked Heads Every Valve Rattles Oil Leaks Every Time from the peanut gallery.

Believe me GM is no threat to Honda or Toyota.

and same can be said of Ford if they can get their act together again and lead the way!

And to the Dolt that says Fords are unreliable never drove one and your talking out your ass. The Taurus has been a very Reliable car you can’t say that for any GM product in recent memory. I’ve asked mechanics which are the best and worst vehicles to own and most mechanics say GM products are the absolute worst category and Toyota, Honda, and Ford are the best.

He hardly ever see a Ford in the repair shop but he see’s plenty of Chevy Junk needing a new engine block, wiring, and just overall trash that a 6th grader could have put together, and not easy to fix.

I mean at this point imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. aka all the GM clones of Taurus substitutes.

Also these Forms of flattery can be found from other GM garbage copying Ford’s High Quality products. Second example, as for the Malibu it imitated the Ford Contour when it came out. The Contour for the record was a superior car but Contour name was a horrible name for a car and was likened to adult diapers and ergo the car lost its appeal and sales. The Critics where right it was technologically superior meanwhile GM produce a contour themselves called the Malibu opposite and Shoved and old Chevy Motor that was noisy and unreliable in it and GM Nerds bought it up because it was the best offering GM could muster at the time for its bereft of reasoning type loyal followers. And I admit it was’nt bad imitation either especially if you consider the horrendous crap GM Still produced in the 1990’s and still does.

GM can’t come up with Good original ideas of its own so they copy as much as they can from Ford or Toyota or even Dodge. And right now even though Ford is a little confused as to what the public wants Don’t Worry all the GM contenders and pretenders to the Thrown will be instantly dismissed by the general public in 2010, and the public and the press will gawk at the fabulous new 2010 Ford Taurus. when the All new Taurus will kick GM’s arse once again. More Fuel efficient, powerful, and technologically superior and affordable.

Hey I love how GM can’t even come up with a front end and must copy for its Chevy2 brand GMC off of the Ford Triton Pickup concept. More evidence to substantiate that GM can not only come up with a good idea on their own but shows how they steal ideas from Ford and others while its design team day dream of the days of the long since defunct Chevelle and Monte Carlo. How sad. If you can’t win steal it. how pathetic.
Please GM just go out of business. Just say No to GM BM.

I guess Heart64 didn’t get that dreamjob at GM cleaning toilets so he has issues.

Damn and here I though I was wordy.

You can say all you want about Chrysler and Ford’s debacles at the moment, but at least I don’t see either of those two companies talking out of the side of their mouth the way GM does. GM Tries to tell the consumer how environmentally friendly they are(BARF!) when they keep dump big SUV’s on the market.

And if we really break the demogtaphics down usually the type of person that Buys these levithan SUV’s-Their IDIOTS. Let me repeat that their MORONS.

Why- they never really use all that space in the SUV 99.9, and I’d be willing to bet as most would that one person drives the gargantuan to work everyday never brings anyone except themselves 99.9% of the time! IN other words they don’t car pool.

If asked why they buy it- they’ll claim safety, but that’s a Bulls**t cover.

But the Number 1 reason they buy Whale Sized SUVs is to Intimidate other vehicles on the road and no other reason!

And while I admit GM is improving they still have a long way to go!

Anyway, you can whatever to want about Ford or Chrysler. Ford is expected to post a profit next year, and Chyrsler is back in American hands.

However, GM recently Loses Big. 12 Feb 2008 11:35 am. GM has posted the largest loss in automaker history, $38.7 billion for 2007!!! Whoa Hoooo. How do you like them apples Babe. Lets see if GM is around in a year or two! WooHoo

Ok, first and foremost, I love my Taurus. Done. I just wish this time they get it right. The Fusion wasn’t a bad move, and the Edge, dare I say, a hit. So maybe, just maybe, they could drive down the right path instead of towing a F-250 with their nuts.